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June 17, 2012

190 days until Christmas!

A few years ago, my grandpa started building nativity houses, in all shapes and sizes, and I was lucky enough to see a few of them in his “workshop” during my 2010 Germany trip. I never knew he was so handy and I was amazed by his work, so I asked him a few months later if he wouldn't mind building one for me. I showed him a picture of one he had previously built that I loved so he could build it for me.

He was so thrilled that I had asked him. He had been talking about starting working on my house and even worried that he wouldn't get it done in time for my next visit, even though it was several months away. My grandpa passed away before he was able to start on my house.

The nativity house I had liked so much belonged to my grandma and she told me that she would never use it anymore, so she gave it to me when I visited in May. I felt very bad about taking hers, but she assured me several times, that she didn't want it anymore and wouldn’t put it up for Christmas anyway.

Everyone told me that it was too big to take to the US and couldn’t understand how I could pay so much money to bring it, but I just knew that I would treasure this house for the rest of my life and it was just so special to me. I love Christmas time and having something for my family that my grandpa built with his own hands, I would’ve paid five times the price that I paid to get it home.

It was quite the project to find a box that was big enough for the house, and not too big for the airport to not accept it. I assembled as much “stuffing material” as I could, to make sure the house wouldn’t get damaged and my dad helped me so much with getting everything together and packing it up securely, I was beyond grateful. He even made a special trip to come see me, just to help me pack it up...what a great dad he is!

My mom and grandma kept saying how happy my grandpa must be, knowing that HIS house was going all the way to the US, having a forever home under our Christmas tree. I hope he is.

Needless to say, my dad is a packing pro and the house made it to Phoenix in one piece! I can’t wait for December, Christmas time might start early at our house this year.